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“Uh, I guess on Wednesday morning, first thing.”
Right after our blowout. But that couldn’t have anything to do with him leaving, could it? Surely I didn’t chase him away. No, I wasn’t that important to him. I wasn’t important to him at all if he left without saying goodbye. I reminded myself he couldn’t have since he didn’t have my number. I was short circuiting.
“Well, send me his number anyway. I want to invite him back for the gala. Since he helped and all.”
She snorted. “If you can call it that. But, yeah, I’ll get it from Silas and message you.”
A few minutes after we ended the call, the number came through and I added it into my phone. Staring at it for a long time, I finally tapped out a message.
I’m sorry I missed you. Hope you’ll come back for the gala.
I waited, finally putting the phone down in disgust after a few minutes. He was a busy man, for goodness sake, and I had better things to do than hover over my phone waiting for a reply. But he still hadn’t answered after a few hours, nor by the next day, making it clear he wasn’t going to answer at all. That was that, then. I knew what I had to do. As hard as it would be, I had to relegate Jax to the category of past fling and leave him there. Thinking about him further just hurt.
Chapter 15 - Jax
The emergency to get back to Manhattan was only half a lie, there was always something brewing that needed oversight, but it was nothing that couldn’t have waited. I ran, plain and simple, but nothing good could have come from encouraging Luna. Our explosive tryst had been a massive mistake. A mistake I couldn’t get off my mind, but a mistake nonetheless. Someone as sweet and wholesome as her would be planning our wedding if we kept along that track, and one of us had to think clearly. It was easier to think clearly when I was miles away from her and inundated with work.
At least, I was trying to concentrate on work, but she kept creeping into my thoughts. Especially how magnetic we were, completely unable to keep our hands or mouths off each other. What I wouldn’t have given for a reprise, but the fact that she got so hurt over thinking I’d lied to her was something I couldn’t ignore. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her, and that was inevitable, because as hot as things were between us, they just as quickly always seemed to turn to ice.
After my assistant brought me my lunch, I tore myself away from the contracts I was looking over. Sooner or later, I knew I’d look at my phone. Was I wishing for a new message from her? It didn’t matter, I took the last bite of my pasta and then couldn’t help reading over the one she’d sent me a few days after I left Loblolly. I could almost hear her speaking the words in her chipper voice, the one that had been like nails on a chalkboard the first time I heard it, but now was like music to me. The way she’d sighed my name when we were…
“Jax, your meeting starts in ten minutes.” My assistant's voice from the intercom on my desk tore me back to reality.
I leaned over and pressed the button. “Yep, thanks.”
I headed for the elevator, trying to shove her out of my head. There was no way I’d go back for her gala. The whole thing was sure to be so pathetic it would only make me sad. It didn’t matter that we loved so many of the same things, we were still complete opposites, and it would be less painful to get stabbed in the eye than watch her fruitless venture fizzle out.
Except, if we were such opposites and she was so wrong for me, why couldn’t I get her out of my head? Thankfully, the meeting wasn’t one that I needed to participate in very much, and I decided I needed to excise Luna from my thoughts, or I’d end up flubbing things where I did need to concentrate. No woman had consumed my mind the way she did, and quite frankly, it was pretty enraging.
Normally I wasn’t a big ladies man or partier the way Silas had been before he got shackled to Harper, but I decided to go to one of the clubs he always used to try to drag me to. A surefire way to stop thinking about that steaming hot encounter with Luna was to have one with someone else. Determined to get back to normal, I went home after work and changed into something more casual than my tailored business suit and headed out. It was nearly impossible to keep a positive attitude, because the last time I met someone at a Manhattan bar, I’d been taken on a toxic, year-long ride through hell by a demon named Tasha. She’d seemed sweet in the beginning, too, until I learned every last detail she told me about herself was a lie, and she was just trying to get a ring on her finger and live the easy life of a socialite.
It felt a little dirty comparing Tasha to Luna, and I hated thinking about how I’d been duped, so I forced myself to just take in all the beautiful women congregated around the bar in the noisy club. Plenty of them gave me a look and a few approached me, but the thumping bass from the dozens of speakers and the jostling crowd made me lose sight of my goal. It suddenly seemed tasteless to sleep with someone just to get my mind off Luna, making me no better than Tasha. After one drink, I gave up and went home alone.
On my way back to my place in the taxi, Raylen sent me a picture of a fish he caught that day back in Virginia. It was a pretty good sized one, and I had a flash of regret that I’d given up the lazy days of the only vacation I got all year. Well, there was no reason I couldn’t still have a vacation. I was one of the bosses of our company, after all.
Ignoring Raylen’s message, I clicked through to the travel app we put out the year before, one of our biggest successes. A random stranger couldn’t do the trick of getting my mind off of Luna, but I bet a vigorous whitewater rafting trip could. There was no room for error on those small boats as the river viciously pummeled them, so I’d have to concentrate solely on surviving.
Even if I had to do it with strangers instead of my two best friends, I wasn’t going to let thoughts of Luna cheat me out of my vacation.
Chapter 16 - Luna
I peeked nervously out from behind the velvet curtains, which were shut so that I could dramatically sweep them open to kick off the gala. The turnout wasn’t too bad, nothing like what I wanted, but I did tend to get my hopes up. Sweeping the crowd, munching on their popcorn as they waited for me to welcome them and then start the movie before dinner and dancing later, I finally had to let go of another hope.
It was clear Jax wasn’t coming. I’d invited him one last time a few days ago, reminding him that I owed him since he gave us so many good ideas, and urging him to show up so he could see them in action.
Once again, I didn’t get a reply.
I finally turned to my volunteer stage hand and motioned for him to open the curtains. A smattering of applause greeted me and I felt like I was back in my pageant days with all those eyes on me. I was certainly dressed for it, in a long, red satin gown that Lynette was letting me borrow from her boutique. The people in the seats were all dressed to the nines as well, something we didn’t get to do very often here. My slight disappointment evaporated and I was overwhelmed with gratitude toward everyone who showed up to support the Dante.
I held up my hands and smiled at them. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with a speech until dinner later,” I said, pausing for the polite laughter. “I just wanted to thank you so much for coming tonight and for believing we can save this wonderful, historic theater. Now, enjoy the movie.”
I hustled off the stage and went through the dressing rooms to make sure the caterers had everything set up, trying not to glance lingeringly at the curtained area where Jax and I had collided in a heap of incredible passion. My brain knew it was done and dusted with Jax, but my heart wouldn’t let it go.
Even during the dinner, the auction and the raffle, then while I gave my speech, I couldn’t help but look for him. I knew he wasn’t there, but my foolish hope wouldn’t quit. The party went late into the night and, as everything was winding up, I caught Raylen’s eye as he and Silas were about to leave. He broke away and headed over to me. I hadn’t seen him since I lit into Jax, but he took my hand as if we were old friends.
“I’ll be leaving tomorrow, so I just wanted to say goodbye,” he said, letting my hand drop.
“I hope you had a nice time here,” I said, keeping my teeth clamped together to keep from asking about Jax.
